My First Airplane Flight

I really like airplanes. I also, like trains, but airplanes are my favorite. We live 3 miles north of an airport that is home to the Valiant Air Command. I went to my first airshow at this airport when I was 9 months old. We go every year. They have a C47 Airplane that they renamed "TICO BELLE." She is one of the 52 planes that flew in the NORMANDY Invasion, in the Battle at Amhem, and the Battle of the Bulge during WWII. She also was part of the Berlin Airlift, and later became part of the Royal Danish Air Force. She flew the Royal Family of Denmark as her job there. It was in 1982 that she retired, and the Valiant Air Command was able to get her. She flew in a lot of airshows until 2001, when she crash landed here in bad weather. They have worked on her to get her back to flying again. The first time she flew since her crash was on my birthday, JUNE 23, of this year. My mom and I were riding in the car, and I saw her over the Indian River flying. I was so excited. Every year I save change to take to the museum to help fix TICO BELLE. One year, they gave me a piece of her, and let me climb on board and look around. I really liked that.

This year my momma found out that they were giving flights on her. She called my dad, and then called to find out more about it. Later that day we went to the museum, and momma bought tickets for our whole family to fly on TICO BELLE. We had to reschedule our flight 3 times, but that was ok.

The day finally came last Saturday. Even though I have a cold, I was very excited about my first plane ride, on my very favorite plane.

Me in front of my favorite museum.
TICO BELLE with a new paint job, almost done.
She has her Normandy Stripes back on.

Me and Momma.

Todd, Aimée and I got to ride in the front row.

Momma and dad sat behind us.

The briefing card

The view out momma's window of the Indian River, on the East coast of Florida

Bear... the flying cub